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St Ursula's College Kingsgrove
St Ursula's College Kingsgrove
	The College crest
Location
	Kingsgrove, southern Sydney, New South Wales; Australia
Coordinates	33°56′28″S 151°06′12″E / 33.941001°S 151.103337°E
Information
Type	Independent single-sex secondary day school
Motto	Latin: Serviam (I will Serve)
Religious affiliation(s)	Ursuline Order
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Patron saint(s)	Saint Angela Merici and Saint Ursula
Established	1 February 1957; 67 years ago
Educational authority	New South Wales Department of Education
Oversight	Catholic Education Office, Archdiocese of Sydney
Principal	Ms Vivienne Awad
Gender	Girls
Enrolment	1169 (2020)
Campus type	Suburban
Colour(s)	Green, navy blue and white
Website	stursulakingsgrove.syd.catholic.edu.au

St Ursula's College, Kingsgrove, founded in 1957, is an independent Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day school for girls, located in Kingsgrove, a southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.^[2] The College is a member of the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia.^[3]

Academically, St Ursula's College is consistently one of the best performing schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney. The College was ranked 69th in the state in the 2021 NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC).^[4]

Vivienne Awad is the current Principal of St Ursula's College. She was appointed to the role in 2024.^[5]

History

The Ursuline Order was founded by Saint Angela de Merici in Brescia, Italy in 1535. Saint Angela Merici named the order after Saint Ursula, patron saint of the Sorbonne in Paris and also the patron saint of education. The Ursuline Sisters came to the Kingsgrove Parish in 1949 when they were invited to take over St Bernadette's School at Bexley South from the Sisters of Mercy. The sisters lived at the convent at Ashbury and travelled to Bexley North each day.

Within a few years, they had established a convent at Caroline Street, Kingsgrove (the present St Ursula's College administration building), and in 1953 they opened a new school, Our Lady of Fatima Primary School.

St Ursula's College was opened in 1957 with an enrolment of 56 girls in first form. The following year, 52 new students came to the College and, by 1959, there were 200 students enrolled. The College has continued to grow, with a current enrolment of over 1,000 students, more than 80 teachers and 20 ancillary staff.

In 2018, and again in 2020, St Ursula's was ranked in the top 50 schools in New South Wales by HSC results.^[6]^[7]

In 2023, St Ursula's introduced the International Baccalaureate as a study path making it the first systemic Catholic school in Australia to give students the opportunity to study through the International Baccalaureate.^[8]^[9]^[10]

In December 2023, the school ended its ban on same-sex partners for LGBT+ students attending the school formal after a Change.org petition launched by a student against its “discriminatory policy” had reached 4,900 signatures. Federal education minister Jason Clare had urged the school to rethink the ban, saying students “should be able to take whoever they wanted” to the Year 12 farewell.^[11] In the same month, Pope Francis announced that priests would be allowed to bless same-sex couples.^[12]

References

^ "Saint Ursula's College: History". Saint Ursula's College. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
^ St Ursula's College, Kingsgrove (2 December 2015). "Home | St Ursula's College". stursulakingsgrove.syd.catholic.edu.au. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
^ "Member Schools Archive". Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
^ HSC Results (4 April 2022). "Congratulations to the St Ursula's College 2021 Year 12 Class | St Ursula's College". stursulakingsgrove.syd.catholic.edu.au. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
^ Principal's Message. "Principals Message | St Ursula's College". stursulakingsgrove.syd.catholic.edu.au. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
^ Kolimar, Eva (17 December 2018). "St George Girls, Sydney Tech and Caringbah High make top 50 in HSC". St George & Sutherland Shire Leader. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
^ Porter, Merryn (8 January 2021). "Our top schools revealed". St George & Sutherland Shire Leader. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
^ "International Baccalaureate". 29 October 2022.
^ Cramsie, Debbie (3 November 2022). "St Ursula's is first to offer Baccalaureate". The Catholic Weekly. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
^ Kolimar, E#va (13 October 2022). "Going global: High school gets IB status". St George & Sutherland Shire Leader. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
^ ’Sydney Catholic school scraps same-sex formal ban following backlash’. 3 November 2023. Guardian Australia. Australian Associated Press.
^ Horowitz, Jason. (18 December 2023). 'Pope Francis Allows Priests to Bless Same-Sex Couples'. New York Times.